1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a connector for connecting two plate-like members and, more particularly, to the connector for connecting a trailing end of a plate-like member to a leading end of the next plate-like member so that these plate-like members can be fed substantially continuously to, for example, a press.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in automatically feeding plate-like members to be processed to a press or the like, a feeder having, for example, feed rollers is generally used.
By way of example, if such members are relatively thin steel plates, they are generally coiled, prior to processing, for ease of handling and shipment. During processing, each of the rolls of steel is carried by a carrier and is uncoiled by the feeder for subsequent feed thereof to the press.
When a substantial length of the steel plate has been processed by the press and the remaining length-has passed the feeder, the driving force of the feeder is not transmitted to the steel plate and, hence, the remaining length can no longer be fed by the feeder.
In this case, the remaining steel plate is removed from the processing line, or is manually fed to the press in synchronism with the operation thereof after the press has been switched to the manual mode. However, the manual feed of the steel plate not only prolongs the feed time, but also results in inaccurate feeding.
To overcome this problem, it can be conceived to connect the trailing end of the preceding steel plate with the leading end of the next uncoiled steel plate by means of, for example, tack welding so that the driving force of the feeder may be transmitted to the preceding steel plate via the next steel plate. Thus, the preceding steel plate can be automatically fed to the feeder until the trailing end of the preceding steel plate reaches a location immediately before press dies.
In practice, however, satisfactory tack welding cannot be achieved because the ends of the steel plates are not always flat and right-angled to respective sides thereof. It is, therefore, very difficult to positively join the ends of two neighboring steel plates for subsequent automatic and smooth feed thereof.